34. Spare Parts

Rating

Votes

10

54%

129

9

22%

52

8

17%

40

7

4%

10

6

2%

4

5

1%

2

4

1%

3

3

0%

0

2

0%

0

1

0%

0

Average Rating

9.1

Votes

240

Synopsis

On a dark frozen planet where no planet should be, in a doomed city with a sky of stone, the last denizens of Earth's long-lost twin will pay any price to survive, even if the laser scalpels cost them their love and hate and humanity.

And in the mat-infested streets, round tea-time, the Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in second-hand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.

And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, their worst suspicions are confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour...

Big Finish may never outdo this. It may be the most commonly reviewed Fifth Doctor audio drama ever. it was even re-released on vinyl in April of 2017 with only 500 copies making for a collectors item well worth storing for years. It is a story you will probably want to listen to more than once. I've listened to it 5 times now and hear something new every time.

This story written by Marc Platt takes full free range artistic license to tell the back story, the very beginning of the Cybermen. And it's a dark, creepy, scary horrifying tale. In fact it inspired four new TV episodes; Rise of the Cybermen, The Age of Steel, World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls. In fact I believe that anyone whom writes a Cyberman story in the future would have a duty to listen to Spare Parts at least once, if not multiple times.

Spare Parts may not be the best story for one to start out with when starting to get used to and enjoying the BF and BBC audio dramas as it might set the bar just a little too high where one might expect this type of perfection to be the norm with Big Finish. This is not normal, this is something beautiful where everything seems to have just fallen into place at just the right time in 2002 when this was made. It was the 34th Doctor Who main series release of a series that will hit 250 releases this summer of 2019. I am not aware of anything that compares to it and there may never be.

This was the first story I listened to and back then I really had trouble following the plot. Next time I listen to the story it'll probably be a 9/10 or a 10/10 but I don't think it's the best introduction story for someone completely new to the medium and for that purpose I give it a 7/10 because even then, I could really appreciate the acting and certain plot elements.

An incredible 'Genesis of the Cyberman' story with beautifully emotive performances from the whole cast. The Cybermen are creepy and wonderfully intimidating. Unlike the majority of doctor who, this story is very dark, almost depressingly so. There's a particular moment where two family members are reunited that is just disturbingly perfect: perfectly performed and perfectly written. It's a very upsetting but beautiful scene.